Search form

Facing deportation, he needs a miracle. A Detroit church may provide one.

Ded Rranxburgaj comforts his wife, Flora, after she fell ill. A Detroit church, Central Methodist United, is giving the couple sanctuary because he is due to be deported to Albania. (Bridge photo by Brian Widdis)

That’s because the 48-year-old father of two is trapped inside Central Methodist United Church in downtown Detroit. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement considers him a fugitive, so if he leaves the sanctuary, he could be deported to his native Albania, where he fled in 2001.

A cook who worked seven days a week to support his family, Rranxburgaj has lived in the church for two weeks, since he and his family left their apartment in the the nearby town of Southgate. They are part of a network of undocumented immigrants seeking shelter in an increasing number of churches from New Jersey to Colorado that offer sanctuary from deportation.

The churches are taking advantage of ICE’s policy on “sensitive locations,” which discourages arrests for immigration violations in churches, schools or hospitals. The number of such churches is increasing nationwide amid heightened debate about immigration, stoked in large part by President Donald Trump’s vow to crack down on undocumented workers and debate about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides protections to nearly 800,000 children of undocumented immigrants and is due to expire on March 5.

Church volunteers hope ICE will reverse Rranxburgaj’s deportation order and allow him to stay in the United States, as has happened in a handful of other cases involving immigrants nationwide who sought sanctuary in churches.

How long will he have to live in a church? No one knows. One man in Philadelphia did so for nearly a year before his case was resolved.

ICE officials did not respond to messages from Bridge seeking comment, but told the Detroit Free Press this month that Rranxburgaj is a fugitive. He was due to be deported on Jan. 25.

“ICE does not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States,” the newspaper quoted ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls as saying.

Escape from Albania

After the fall of communism in 1992, Albania’s economy collapsed in 1997. Seeking stability and the American Dream, Rranxburgaj said he fled Albania in 2001 with the couple’s young son. Flying into Canada, they ended up in Hamtramck, where his brother lived. They didn’t have legal immigration documentation.

About six months later, his wife, Flora made the trip to the United States. They soon had another son, Eric, 15, who is a U.S. citizen. The couple applied for political asylum to remain in the country, but were denied in 2006.

In 2007, Flora was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It makes her so weak she is unable to travel in cars for a more than a half an hour, much less to Albania.

“I woke up one day, and I was an old woman,” said Flora, 45.

Ded Rranxburgaj worked seven days a week as a cook to support his wife and two boys. He left Albania in 2001 after the country’s civil war. (Bridge photo by Brian Widdis)

Since 2009, the couple has been given permission to remain in the country due to her illness on humanitarian grounds, said George Mann, Rranxburgaj’s attorney. Each year, Ded Rranxburgaj has checked in with immigration officials as required, Mann said.

But in October, everything changed. Even though Flora’s condition had not improved, Ded Rranxburgaj said ICE told him he had to buy a one-way ticket back to Albania. He was supposed to show up for an interview with ICE on Jan. 17, but for the first time ever, he didn’t comply.

“He came to us the day before and said, ‘I can’t go. They’re going to arrest me and I won’t ever see my wife again,’” Mann said. And because he didn’t show up for that interview, ICE will not consider Rranxburgaj’s appeals to stay, Mann said.

“They didn’t look at the hundreds of pages of medical records. They denied him on a technicality,” Mann said. “The moral blindness of this is beyond belief.”

Trump took office last year promising “law and order” and swift deportations of those who were in the nation illegally. In fiscal year 2017, ICE conducted 226,119 deportations, a slight decrease from the previous year, but deportations resulting from ICE arrests increased 27 percent, according to federal statistics.

“The president made it clear … There’s no population off the table,” ICE acting director Thomas Homan said on Dec. 5. “If you’re in this country illegally, we’re looking for you and we’re going to look to apprehend you.”

Church versus state

Rranxburgaj, who is Catholic, was running out of options. That’s when the church intervened.

Michigan United, a local immigration advocacy group, introduced the Rranxburgajs to the people at Central United Methodist church. Founded in 1810, members say it’s the oldest Protestant church in the state.

The church has a program for homeless people that includes art classes, health services and a soup kitchen that feeds hundreds of people a day. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the church in the 1960s during the civil rights movement.

Last year, the church announced it would become part of a network of local sanctuary churches that offer protection to undocumented immigrants with special situations. Two other nearby churches have rooms available, but the four-bedroom apartment at Central United is best suited for a family.

The apartment is carpeted, has a kitchen with laundry facilities, a dishwasher, and is one door down from a gym with a basketball hoop. Years ago, the church’s caretaker raised a family in the apartment, and it has since been used to house missionaries, church volunteers said.

Last year, an African family of six that was seeking political asylum in Canada lived in the apartment for three months, said the Rev. Jill Hardt Zundel of Central United.

“This is what our faith calls us to do,” Zundel said. “These are real people.”

Mann, the attorney, said he has talked to ICE officials, and they know the Rranxburgaj family is in the church. Caitlin Homrich-Knieling, an activist with Michigan United, said ICE will need a warrant to enter the church.

“We won’t open the door for them. They will have to break down the door and if they do, we will Facebook Live it,” she said.

The shutdown occurred after Democrats sought a budget that gave permanent residency status to DACA recipients, while Republicans pushed for money for immigration enforcement and a wall between the United States and Mexico. The shutdown ended without a resolution on DACA.

‘I’ll die without him’

At 44, Flora Rranxburgaj looks far older due to debilitating multiple sclerosis. And on the day her husband asked the church volunteers to call 911, she complained of feeling dizzy.

Zundel, the reverend, entered the apartment and placed her palm on Flora’s forehead. Flora didn’t feel feverish, but the pastor asked the volunteers to find out if any of the church’s volunteer nurses were in the building.

Flora Rranxburgaj has debilitating multiple sclerosis and says she’d die without the help of her husband Ded, who is due to be deported to Albania. (Bridge photo by Brian Widdis)

The two women chatted as Ded Rranxburgaj paced the living room with tissues damp from his tears balled in his hand. Maybe stress was getting to her, Zundel said to Flora.

Flora nodded. And smiled. Within minutes, Flora let her husband help her up from the couch to sit in her wheelchair. This would not be a day to go to the hospital. It would be a day to be strong, she said.

Ded Rranxburgaj said he can’t go back to Albania because his wife can’t go back to Albania. She said she would die without him

“People like her, over there, nobody cares about them,” he said. “If I leave, I leave my wife to die.”

Comments

Everyone blames Trump, but all he is doing is forcing Congress to do its job. Congress is supposed to make the laws, and the Executive Office is supposed to enforce those laws. Previous administrations have gone around the constitution with executive orders. Nowhere in the Constitution does the right to make law go to the President. Over the past decade, there have been about 12 times as many executive orders issued by the President and all his administrative offices (EPA, etc.) as there have been laws issued by Congress. If you want this person to have a different deportation outcome, then write your representative and senators.

What you said has some merit, but Congress is broken and current approval ratings less thank 20%. This dysfunction is holding our country back from being who we are as outlined in our founding documents. Everything has been politicized and Trump has weaponized politics with his own "state TV" Fox News.

You say "Why blame Trump". Because right now the buck stops there, and he has done all in his power to keep America divided. As Chuck Shumer said, he is like negotiating with Jello. Trump has done nothing to bring this country together except Tweet insults, and distract the news media with drama.

Yes, I am very concerned. Read any of Mark Levin’s books. Learn how our social safety net programs will not work when they are consuming over 100% of the government’s budget. Learn how Social Security will not work when there are only 2.4 workers per retiree instead of 100. Learn how weak our medical programs will become when everyone figures out how to be disabled.

And as you say, the state TV of Fox News, is, in my opinion, just as bad as the would be state TV of the Clinton News Network or MSNBC would have been if the election went the other way. And a majority of listeners gave praise to President Trump’s SOTU address.

Mr. Levin addresses social programs, immigration, defense, and much more in his book “Plunder and Deceit”. Read it and you will be concerned about our country for more reasons.

They came here illegally - what part of that do you not understand? We need to take care of American CITIZENS and cease this belief that we somehow owe illegals - lawbreakers - something. We don't. What the church is doing is unlawful and sad.

Sir ... "We need to take care of.... " Where exactly do you personally fit in the "we"? How can what the church is doing be "sad" ? Its clearly doing what it's called to do. That you don't agree well that's a different issue.